Richard Barley joined the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in 2013, relocating from Victoria, Australia. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Open Gardens Australia, and before that a Director within the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, where he worked for 30 years. Richard has extensive experience of balancing the needs of a world-class horticultural site and visitor attraction, while maintaining and developing important scientific living collections. In his current role he has overall responsibility for the living collections and landscapes of the Kew and Wakehurst sites, and also for Kew’s School of Horticulture, Learning and Participation programmes, Interpretation and Safeguarding, together with a selection of capital building programmes. Richard holds a degree in Applied Science (Horticulture), from Burnley College (University of Melbourne) and in addition to being a Council member of the CIH, he is a Trustee of the Castle Howard Arboretum Trust, the National Garden Scheme, and the Kew Guild; and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners.
On October 12 at 2 pm Eastern time, Richard will speak about the continuing evolution of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, from its inception and first planting in 1846 (in Melbourne’s infancy), through the phase of development of a ‘scientific botanic garden’ under German botanist and explorer Ferdinand Mueller, the remodeling with subtropical influences under William Guilfoyle’s direction, to the contemporary improvements as the climate warms and water sustainability becomes one of the most significant challenges. This Gardens Trust lecture is part of a four part series organized by The Gardens Trust.
This ticket for this individual session costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here. (Subscribers to Historic Gardens Review will be able to purchase a series ticket for £8.) Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.
